If a non-USGS lead author does not release data collected using Federal funds, is the USGS coauthor responsible for providing public access to those data? [090]

The OSTP and OMB requirements for open data apply to data collected using Federal funds. Regardless of authorship, if the research was federally funded, then the funding agency is responsible for providing public access to those data. If the research is not federally funded, then the non-USGS lead author is not required to but has discretion to release the data to the public. It is common practice throughout the scientific publishing community to release the data upon which scholarly conclusions are based. Major publishers including Science, Nature, American Geophysical Union, Elsevier, and Wiley require access to the data upon which scholarly conclusions are based as a condition for publication.